FCC and mobile carriers commit to nationwide text-to-911 by May 2014

After years of discussion, Americans will finally be able to get help via SMS.

It seems almost stupid that it’s nearly 2013 and we’re still unable to communicate with our emergency services in any way other than picking up the phone and calling them. We can certainly imagine situations where you’d want to be able to send a quick text message to local police. The US is a bit behind here—British mobile phone users have had access to EmergencySMS since 2009.

For years, we’ve been covering the slow ascent of text-to-911. But now, the Federal Communications Commission says that the nation’s Big Four mobile carriers have agreed to “accelerate” text-to-911 capabilities for debut in 2013, with a nationwide deployment by May 15, 2014.

“Building on text-to-911 deployments and trials that are already underway, this agreement will accelerate progress and ensure that over 90 percent of the nation’s wireless consumers, including millions of consumers with hearing or speech disabilities, will be able to access emergency services by sending a text message to 911, where local 911 call centers (known as a Public Safety Answering Points, or PSAPs) are also prepared to receive the texts,” the FCC said in a statement Thursday.

The agency added that Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint and AT&T would add a “bounce back” feature across their networks by June 30, 2013, which would text back an auto-response if the carriers have not yet implemented a full text-to-911 capability.

I'm not entirely convinced that this would be a better solution than simply calling...

It's clearly better if you are unable to speak. And may be better if you are unable to hear. There are other options (relay service, tdd), but those require dedicated hardware or software at the place of the accident.

Even ignoring situations where it might more generally make sense to send a text but not to initiate a voice call, there are a number of Americans with hearing and speech impairments who this would benefit.

I'm not entirely convinced that this would be a better solution than simply calling...

In some cases particularly if you're in hiding calling and having to speak could probably get you killed.

The more likely scenario is that voice simply does not work. There have been multiple cases where people have been stuck / injured in the woods or simply in an area of poor coverage (I'm looking at YOU AT&T) where texting works but voice does not.

In these cases, the affected folks texted friends who contacted Emergency Services but obviously one would like to simplify the process.

Maybe 911 gets gps quicker by calling? I would hope sending a 911 text does the same thing.

Sometimes the GPS data doesn't immediately come in. Often times the 911 operator has to ping that connection and get a good location. With text messages not giving a constant connection like a phone call would, texts would inhibit that ability.

The one time I had to call 911 (to report a car accident that happened right in front of me), I was surprised by the amount of time that I had to wait on hold, getting transferred, explaining the situation ("what's your address? where's the fire?).

It only took a minute or two, but by the time I did get transferred to the right dispatcher (fire department, since they're the first responders), they said thanks for calling, we've already had a few calls about it.

So, I could imagine that they'd be able to process a dozen texts saying "Car accident at corner of High st. and Rich ave... Nothing is on fire, but one car is flipped over" much faster than a dozen phone calls.

Oooh boy....OK...I'm a Dispatch supervisor for a local sheriff's office that has looked into implementing this. It's part of a larger implemetation called NextGen 911. Implementing text, video, and pictures, directly into the 911 PSAP is all part of that.

I believe ultimately that this will be a good thing, and first responders will be able to save more lives and help more people with it. Having said that, there are major obstacles in the way for small PSAPs in poor counties such as mine, for implementing it.

I thought I'd cover some of those things....not to be negative about it, but to provide some information to folks, from the PSAP perspective.

Firstly, I'm going to put on my Disaptcher hat. Dispatchers (especially ones in a small county like ours) frequently get overwhelmed with calls when big events happen. Our Dispatchers are also call-takers, so not only are they taking calls, they are also paging out, and talking with first responders over the radio. Now we're looking at adding text, video, and pictures to that. I'm going to need more staff to handle more information coming into Dispatch. Along with that, I'm going to need to train those Dispatchers how to handle all the extra information. These things are certainly doable, but take time and money.

Next, I'm going to put on my budget hat. As I eluded to above this will take money to implement. Hiring additional employees, and training are only part of that equation. I've been in talks with our local telco who provides 911 services to our PSAP, and we are looking 6 figures just to get our foot in the door. In a small county, that is a TON of money.

Next comes the IT hat. Where does all this extra data go? How is it stored? How does it get attached to calls in our RMS system (records management). Are we going to have to purchase more modules from our RMS vendor to handle text messages, etc. (see the point above about budget)

The last and final hat I'm going to put on is the liability hat. With any first responder type of agency, liability is one of the most important things. With the sue happy world we live in, law enforcement, EMS, and Fire are frequent targets. So here's a scenario: Someone texts 911 that someone is trying to break into their house. Let's say that person gets in and murders the person who sent the text. What if that text message never made it's way into the PSAP. Who's liable? Is it the sheriff's office? Is it the carrier? How do I track that text message and see where it stopped? How do I protect my agency from lawsuit?

These are all questions that I have asked of our local telco, and also several vendors of 911 services. The answer I get is all the same: It's still being worked out." I can tell you what our agency will do: Wait until some other counties in the area make the transition first, and then follow suit.

Please understand that I am not trying to be negative about this. As I mentioned above, I think ultimately it will be a good thing, but there's some hurdles to overcome first.

Ultimately this is being pushed by the state and federal gov't, but ultimately it will happen or not whether or not the local taxpayers push for it. That will be the ultimate determiner.

Even if SMS is no appropriate for all 911 situations, it is still a valuable option to have in certain scenarios. Are we really surprised anyways? I mean government and social services seem to be the last to adopt technologies. Likely due to bureaucracy and budget restrictions, but even so.

Just one personal anecdote: a few weeks back, I got a ticket for speeding. My first ever. I tried to pay it that day, the first the phone number on the ticket was a dead end. After much digging in one of the most unintuitive web sites ever, I found the new number. Ohh an automated system to check for your ticket number. Of course its not found and I get a message saying it takes 14-21 days to get into the system. Seemed odd, but I checked back each week to no avail. Finally 30 days later it is my court date and still nothing on their automated phone line or their web based system (which still had the wrong phone number listed on it). Of course my court day is on Thanksgiving because the officer to gave the ticket wasn't thinking ahead (or turning in my ticket for precessing it seems). So I end up having to take a day off work to go down to the court house, stand in a long line, and sort this stuff out because you can't talk to anyone directly otherwise. Turns out the officer just turned in the ticket that day and worse yet they showed it to me and it was a scan of the handwritten thing. And I end up paying 450 bucks after much stress.

How hard would it be to get that officer a smart phone and write an secure app to transmit the ticket immediately? Banks can transmit checks with a photo like this. Better yet, write the ticket digitally. If they get a card reader peripheral we could even pay on the spot. I mean hell, even a standardized paper ticket that can be read by a machine would be a great improvement. I was literally trying everything to somehow pay this stupid ticket, and they fought it every step of the way. It just feels as if they are 20 years behind the technology curve. This is no small city either. I am right on the doorstep of Silicon Valley. Sigh, just where does all our tax money go?

Even if SMS is no appropriate for all 911 situations, it is still a valuable option to have in certain scenarios. Are we really surprised anyways? I mean government and social services seem to be the last to adopt technologies. Likely due to bureaucracy and budget restrictions, but even so.

Just one personal anecdote: a few weeks back, I got a ticket for speeding. My first ever. I tried to pay it that day, the first the phone number on the ticket was a dead end. ...

I was literally trying everything to somehow pay this stupid ticket, and they fought it every step of the way. It just feels as if they are 20 years behind the technology curve. This is no small city either. I am right on the doorstep of Silicon Valley. Sigh, just where does all our tax money go?

Where exactly? When I first moved to Silicon Valley, I had to adjust my driving style (don't get me started on CA drivers :-), and got 2 speeding tickets in 2005. I think I just got the address off the back of the ticket, sent off a check, signed up for and attended traffic school for the one, and all was well. I think I did get something in the mail. Can't remember exactly. But, overall, quite painless. Not sure what's changed? And $450? OUCH. IIRC, the base ticket back in '05 was $125 + a few other fees. Maybe $200-250 total?

i'd rather have text reporting of non-emergencies or haven't happened yet emergencies. this would be more useful than the rare "i've been kidnapped and am locked in the trunk of a car."

Like: - drunk driver weaving (auto-attach gps location)- i see a drug deal going down.- report small fire on the side of the road- sofa in the middle of the highway.

there could be an app that lets you signal a bunch of these common things with big buttons on your phone so you don't have to type out a message (esp while driving). when the receiving software aggregates a number of reports of the same type at a location it weights the reports until some threshold and then the cops are notified.

Spend the money on improving the g'damn crappy network first and get coverage expanded. Once txt to 911 is embraced, what will it really cost? 10, 20 billion, and still not work properly until the FCC hands over more spectrum?

If we can't trust the phone companies to do what's right with Universal Services money, why would we trust them with emergency services txt?

I, like millions of others, are moving away from SMS/TXT, its a dying service. iMessage and others are rapidly outdistancing SMS/TXT.

Its a total boondoggle. A waste of money, and will only frustrate users that *have* to buy a g'damn txt plan to get 911. Another *mandatory* fee.. Pure horse hockey.

Spend the money on improving the g'damn crappy network first and get coverage expanded. Once txt to 911 is embraced, what will it really cost? 10, 20 billion, and still not work properly until the FCC hands over more spectrum?

If we can't trust the phone companies to do what's right with Universal Services money, why would we trust them with emergency services txt?

I, like millions of others, are moving away from SMS/TXT, its a dying service. iMessage and others are rapidly outdistancing SMS/TXT.

Its a total boondoggle. A waste of money, and will only frustrate users that *have* to buy a g'damn txt plan to get 911. Another *mandatory* fee.. Pure horse hockey.

Why would you have to buy 911 texts? I can take a deactivated phone and make a 911 call.

I'm all for this and don't get me wrong buuut, how can they interpret whether or not there's a legitimate 911 text, or someone who's just pranking or pissing off the law for no particular reason at all? There are some sick assholes out there who would do this just for the hell of it....

I'm all for this and don't get me wrong buuut, how can they interpret whether or not there's a legitimate 911 text, or someone who's just pranking or pissing off the law for no particular reason at all? There are some sick assholes out there who would do this just for the hell of it....

There are criminal penalties for such behavior, and there is no reason to think they wouldn't apply just because it's not a voice call.

What the call centers should expect, however, is a slew of "This is a test" messages coming from burglar alarms.

Being deaf and a Brit I have been registered with EmergencySMS for a while.

This scheme have been around prior to 2009 actually, with various police forces in different part of the country offering a dedicated mobile number (NOT 999) for deaf people to access. They advertised this number to deaf clubs, organisations and some even did it via Twitter I think (via direct message rather than a public broadcast)

Many many deaf people have a mobile, texting is used very heavily, some even send a few thousands every month (it's cheap in UK) and being able to do emergency SMS have been high in demand.

Finally we got EmergencySMS which is fantastic but some caveats to be aware of.

When you first send a text to 999 with the message "register" - you will get a message saying that it is intended *only* for the deaf/people with hearing loss - as it states on the website:

"The emergencySMS service lets deaf, hard of hearing and speech-impaired people in the UK send an SMS text message to the UK 999 service where it will be passed to the police, ambulance, fire rescue, or coastguard."

You are then asked to reply to confirm that you acknowledge that and that it's for a real emergency only etc etc.

However this isn't as reliable as calling 999. There are still problems with the service such as this:

You have a mobile. You are with Network X. You go out of range of Network X but is in the range of Network Y. You can't make calls or send texts on Network Y because it's not your network. BUT you are able to make an emergency call to 999 on Network Y even if it's not your network.

Here's the problem: You can't send a text to 999 on Network Y because it's not your network.

The mobile operators haven't made it possible to treat SMS to 999 as an emergency message. I don't know the technical barriers for this, but co-operating with each other is obviously one of them.

Even if SMS is no appropriate for all 911 situations, it is still a valuable option to have in certain scenarios. Are we really surprised anyways? I mean government and social services seem to be the last to adopt technologies. Likely due to bureaucracy and budget restrictions, but even so.

Just one personal anecdote: a few weeks back, I got a ticket for speeding. My first ever. I tried to pay it that day, the first the phone number on the ticket was a dead end. ...

I was literally trying everything to somehow pay this stupid ticket, and they fought it every step of the way. It just feels as if they are 20 years behind the technology curve. This is no small city either. I am right on the doorstep of Silicon Valley. Sigh, just where does all our tax money go?

Where exactly? When I first moved to Silicon Valley, I had to adjust my driving style (don't get me started on CA drivers :-), and got 2 speeding tickets in 2005. I think I just got the address off the back of the ticket, sent off a check, signed up for and attended traffic school for the one, and all was well. I think I did get something in the mail. Can't remember exactly. But, overall, quite painless. Not sure what's changed? And $450? OUCH. IIRC, the base ticket back in '05 was $125 + a few other fees. Maybe $200-250 total?

With my most recent speeding ticket, it was pretty clear that the ticket was done with an automated, in-the-patrol-car system. I had a nicely printed ticket. The only analog part was my signature.

It also already had both a case number and a court date. Within two business days, it was available to pay online.

All this from a ticket issued by an Alabama State Trooper (we have a unified traffic enforcement system, so Police and Sheriff's Dept. use this same system). Cost: approximately $250.

Compare this to the last ticket I got in Florida, about five years ago, which was still done as a handwritten, carbonless copy multipart form. I then had to call the courthouse in that county to find out how to pay, and when, and where. (In person, at the Clerk of the Court, which was an absolute pain, and also about $250.)

The last and final hat I'm going to put on is the liability hat. With any first responder type of agency, liability is one of the most important things. With the sue happy world we live in, law enforcement, EMS, and Fire are frequent targets. So here's a scenario: Someone texts 911 that someone is trying to break into their house. Let's say that person gets in and murders the person who sent the text. What if that text message never made it's way into the PSAP. Who's liable? Is it the sheriff's office? Is it the carrier? How do I track that text message and see where it stopped? How do I protect my agency from lawsuit?

Yes, texts are a best effort service. They can be dropped or delayed without the original sender knowing. Unless they change the spec and implement a guaranteed delivery, it should always be a less preferred than the existing voice.

fishsandwich wrote:

Just one personal anecdote: a few weeks back, I got a ticket for speeding.

How hard would it be to get that officer a smart phone and write an secure app to transmit the ticket immediately? Banks can transmit checks with a photo like this. Better yet, write the ticket digitally. If they get a card reader peripheral we could even pay on the spot.

NO thanks, the existing system is much better. Chances are much better that it'll get dropped somewhere along the way, there are more avenues to get out of it if the handwriting is terrible or it gets damaged, the officer doesn't remember / doesn't show up on the court date, etc.

Yes, texts are a best effort service. They can be dropped or delayed without the original sender knowing. Unless they change the spec and implement a guaranteed delivery, it should always be a less preferred than the existing voice.

A reasonable extension of the "bounceback" service would be to implement a TCP-like delivery of emergency texts as opposed to the UDP-like system used elsewhere.

Zoomer wrote:Yes, texts are a best effort service. They can be dropped or delayed without the original sender knowing. Unless they change the spec and implement a guaranteed delivery, it should always be a less preferred than the existing voice.

This is true, but do citizens know this? Like everything else, people expect things like this to "just work". If someone is in a panic situation, are they going to remember "Hey, there's a possibility that this may not work". At least with a phone call, you connect with someone on the other end, and get piece of mind that you actually contacted someone.

Quote:

Mondrian wrote:i'd rather have text reporting of non-emergencies or haven't happened yet emergencies. this would be more useful than the rare "i've been kidnapped and am locked in the trunk of a car."

Like: - drunk driver weaving (auto-attach gps location)- i see a drug deal going down.- report small fire on the side of the road- sofa in the middle of the highway.

there could be an app that lets you signal a bunch of these common things with big buttons on your phone so you don't have to type out a message (esp while driving). when the receiving software aggregates a number of reports of the same type at a location it weights the reports until some threshold and then the cops are notified.

A good plan in theory, however, we get undated with non-emergency calls on our 911 lines everyday, and there's no reason to expect any less with text messages. There's no good way to seperate it out. Plus, then there has to be development of a phone app, training citizens on how to use it, etc...and then the liability aspect rears it's head. What happens if the app fails, or the citizen doesn're remember how to use it.....